Aroma: Dark fruits and dark bread crust. Faint spices. yeast and an unfortunate touch of must comes with the yeastiness.

Flavor: Sweet, but not overly so, with hints of toffee and brown sugar. Hints of spices including nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. A suggestion of rum. Dark fruit in abundance. No mustiness, thankfully. Complex and layered. Faint, ripe banana. Loads of depth here, and other flavor components come and go, adding to the enjoyment of this great ale.

O: More like an ABT 12 than St. Bernardus Prior 8. Better than the Prior 8 and, if not for the aroma, it would be better than the ABT 12 too. Despite the Xmas theme, quite enjoyable in the summer. Highly recommended.

Appearance  This ale is a dark, dingy brown in color with a modest but stubborn head.

Smell  There's a lot of yeast in this nose and it has a hint of sourness to it. The malts are a light, doughy brown. The spicing is very winterish, full of dark accents. It is very balanced and somehow manages to pull off a light balance.

Taste  The yeast comes through strongly at the taste, and the malt is again like the nose; very light and doughy. I'm getting a bit of baker's chocolate as well. The spices pulled back some from the nose but are still present and well-balanced.

Mouthfeel  This is not quite full-bodied but it is big. The carbonation is strong and fluffy, tickling the inside cheeks like a good BSDA should.

Drinkability  This is a terrific addition to the St Bernie inventory. It's a wonderful wintertime specialty ale.

Pours a deep brown, ruby red color; murky and opaque with a thick, fluffy, creamy, and long-lasting beige head. Sweet and malty aromas jump from the glass immediately upon pouring; wine-like in aroma, with grapes and phenolic smells meshing together. Apple skins, berries, prunes, and a subtle hint of clove from the signature Belgian yeast. In the taste, there are many more spices coming out than were in the aroma. Nutmeg, anise, ginger, tiny bits of cinnamon, maybe even a touch of white pepper. Some light cocoa notes all around, bready and thick in flavor, clove and some spicy bitterness hits fast on the tail end. Earthy, dirty, and again full of boozy fruits - plums, figs, apples, soaked in booze. Bread and a touch of rye in the aftertaste. Thick body, heavy, lots of fine carbonation.

A solid Christmastime BSDA that acts as a wonderful winter warmer. One of the things I like about most BSDA's are their complex flavor profiles, and this one is no different. Lots of things going on, but they work together well.

A: The beer is very dark amber in color and poured with a two finger high creamy beige head that slowly died down but left a thin layer of bubbles consistently covering the surface.
S: The nose has aromas of malty sweetness and notes of dark fruits.
T: Like the smell, the taste is rather malty but has a mild amount of sweetness with notes of dark fruits and hints of yeast. The sweetness becomes stronger as the beer warms up.
M: It feels medium-bodied and very smooth on the palate with a high amount of carbonation.
D: The beer is very easy to drink considering its strength because the alcohol is well hidden.

Had this with Christmas dinner in 2009. Thanks to my parents for spontaneously picking this up and surprising my wife and I with it for the meal.

Pours a dark caramel with a nice tan head and some good lacing. Nose is quite nice, dominated by plums, figs, dates, nutmeg, allspice, a touch of cinnamon, and some doughy malt. Lovely yeast character. Taste is just as complex and uber integrated. Like a nice holiday dessert without being at all overly sweet. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy; super smooth. Drinkability is quite nice. Will have to make this a tradition.

11.2oz bottle purchased at the Spokane Valley Total Wine for $5.99. According to the rear label, this is best before June 29, 2018.

Poured into a St. Bernardus glass (love it when beer and glassware meet), this was a dark brown color, showing off reddish highlights when held up to light. There was a big, thick beige colored head that took it’s time to drop.

In the nose, I got fruit, sweetness, and spiciness kinda like a candy apple paired with a banana. Other fruits were present, however, as I also got some prune and fig aroma.

Sweet and fruity in the taste as well, but balanced with some spices a more dark fruitiness that lends some bitterness and, so, balance to the proceedings. One thing not present in the taste is the alcohol (10%) of this beer. As it warmed, the spices came out more, but not the booze, and it remained dangerously drinkable throughout.

Fairly light bodied for a big boozer, as is standard with beers of this style, and the mouthfeel had that effervescence that is so hard for American versions to capture.

I don’t think this is as complex as a quad like St. Bernardus’s Abt 12, but there’s still quite a bit going on in this beer, and all of it delicious. Yep, I’d drink it again!

A: Pours a rich, deep bronze-brown, and forms a fantastically thick head with good retention. Fairly clear, enough to see the bubbles rising from the bottom. Lacing is rather remarkable - this amount of froth and lacing should not even be possible for a 10% ABV beer!

S: Sweet malt and yeast, wreathed through with plum, fig, and cherry notes. The candi sweetness is of course present, along with just a tinge of funk.

T: So, that's what a quad with cinnamon in it tastes like. There's significant heat in this, from a combination of cinnamon spice with noticeable alcohol. Sweet malt, candi sugar, and dark fruits, particularly cherry, are all present, but beneath the spiceahol mix. The finish leaves a lingering burn.

M: Rather thin and sharply carbonated for a quad, actually. I was expecting something stickier, given the head and lacing.

O: I am rather underwhelmed by this beer, especially from St. Bernardus. The Abt 12 is spectacular, but this does not disguise the alcohol content half as well - instead, it disguises the underlying yeast flavors with alcohol and spice. I wouldn't say it is a bad beer, but I would not go out of my way to have it again. Perhaps if I were to encounter it on tap somewhere for a decent price per pour.

Served in a St. Bernardus chalice, it pours a very deep, dark and murky brown. It develops a two-finger head light brown and sudsy, with low retention.
Nice lacing.

The bouquet is of caramel, booze, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, slightly toasted malts and dark fruits. Not very assertive.

Totally scrumptious.
Expressive carbonation upfront, that lasts a good while.
An assertive and balanced flavor at first, but short after the sweetness overruns completely the tamed bitterness. Caramel, molasses, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, figs, plums, raisins and a bit of cherry, fruity liquor as the alcohol is very assertive, a slight chocolate note and just a hint of wood.
The finish is long, and it has that multifaceted, waning sweetness. A bit of sweetness coats your palate at the end.
Medium body, smooth.

Had out of the bottle pouted into a Belgian style tulip glass. A number of sour notes to the smell and taste that seemed off. Not sure if I had a bad batch but almost felt like a lambic style any other st. Bernadus beers

Taste: Dark cherries, anise, plums. Spicy berries. Maybe a touch of mint. But not a lot of holiday spices at first. I can tell that this will change (improve) with warmth. Very juicy though, lots of cherry/berry flavors.

Cheeks: Surprisingly light-bodied. Carbonation tickles the tongue. The 10% is tough on the nose, but its pretty easy going down the hatch. Doesn't burn the mouth too much either. The reserved use of the holiday spices lets the body of the beer shine through as a decent BSDA.

Overall: Middle of the road for my journey through Christmas Belgian ales this year. So far, I would put La Chouffe and Corsendonk over this. But I enjoyed this more than Gouden Carolus and Delirium Noel (what the hell happened to Delirium Noel??? so disappointed). This is really good, but somewhat forgettable. I enjoyed every sip I had, but the taste disappears very quickly. And the taste that is there is very mild. I don't mind christmas/winter ales taking it easy on the spices, but I at least want to know they are there if I'm buying them. I could smell the anise and clove, but couldn't really taste much outside of the initial anise notes. Regardless, this is a solid BSDA if you're looking for one. St. Bernardus does a good job, and they made another solid offering with this ale.

Picked up a 4 pack of 11.2oz bottles on clearance at Woodman's. Let's see how this stacks up to Abt 12.

11.2 oz bottle poured into pint glass.

Appearance: Pours a very very dark reddish brown. Big, frothy head that takes quite some time to die down, leaving a sticky lacing along the side of the glass.

Smell: From the moment I poured this, I got hit by the same sort of sweetness that Abt 12 has in it. The brown sugar, dates, raisin notes come shining on through. I don't smell any real booziness to it. Maybe a trace of banana here, with some nutmeg and holiday type spices.

Taste: That's... different. This hits you in a different way than Abt 12. More of the holiday spices, but the date/raisin notes still are definitely here. A complex taste to it, pretty crisp, but not boozy at all.

Mouthfeel: Bubbly and crisp. Lingers a bit longer in the aftertaste, in a warming manner from the alcohol. Not a burning sensation, thankfully. Definitely a lighter body to it.

Overall: Dangerously sessionable for a 10% ABV. Very enjoyable. I'd love to age a couple of these in the basement.